Credit where it is due

My buddy and Bavarian Napoleonic mogul Roger went in on an order to the Perry bros. in October. Our goal was to get the free shipping, and we certainly made it!

 I put the order in a Sunday night.  The next Monday (eighth day) my wife went to check the mail and said " There is a pretty heavy box out here."  This is what she brought in:

Over one hundred packs of figures and three (WW2) vehicles.  Everything as ordered, no breakage.   Nice company to do business with for figures!

I will be painting my portion of the order over the next several months. Napoleonic Swedes, WW2 Vichy French. Roger?  Lots of Bavarians!

I have some catching up to do...part 5 Carlist War

This is the final catching up post, although I do have some WW2 and odds and ends to show on later posts.

The Navarrese units are actually part of a long ago campaign and another of 'My Daughter  is awesome' posts.

In all their Carlist glory

After college, the first pbm (1970's- so really by mail.) campaign included a country called Navarre.  The player named his country and used the Carlist uniforms as a basis of his 'imagined' nation.  Since all the rest of the players were pretty much wed to Napoleonic style uniforms, this made Dave (the player of Navarre) the standout sartorially.

Flash forward 40 years or so.  My hankering after a Carlist force stoked by the Perry Bros. range and abetted by a Christmas present from my daughter. I have some mounted  command to paint and await a possible reinforcement, if my daughter once again delves into the website for my Christmas gift. (Hope springs eternal....and she did ask what I wanted...)

The uniforms are basic Navarre troops from the book called The First on the Carlist War by Conrad Cairns on the Perry website. Sadly, the book is not listed right now on their website.  There is a scenario/rulebook on the Carlist war listed...All honor is Lost  but I do not know what uniform information it might have inside.  Another good source for information is the yahoo group on the Carlist War.

 I have two units formed and one on skirmish bases.   This should give me a lot of flexibility in small forces.
Anyway, in the tradition of how I play, these fellows will be featured as a contingent in the next 'imaginated' campaign slowly bubbling on my back burners.

I have some catching up to do...Part 4 Austrian fast artillery battery

The very first post on the blog was about painting an Austrian foot battery.

Since I want to do at the equivalent of an Austrian light division roughly 1813-1815 a fast battery is 'required.' Took a few years, oh well.

The special box complete with seats for the crew are the sign of the battery type

I am thinking, unloaded battery would put the rammer out front?

 

 

 

Since I went into the reasons behind the decision to make an oob needing this battery in the post on the jagers, this post is a little shorter.

I have some catching up to do....pt 3 Austrian Jagers

Way back in time,at Historicon 2009, a group of us put together several games featuring situations of 1809 Napoleonics battles .

My personal project was the campaign pitting the forces of Austria against the French and Westphalian units in North-western Germany.  What made it fun was that the allies had a varied group of infantry units in black, blue, green, brown and grey uniforms,  These represented Brunswick, Kurfurst Hesse, and Austrian  units. But no infantry with white coats.

The opposing side had almost all white coated infantry units...Westpahlian and Dutch... and not or very few blue coated units.  It appealed to me, and I did most of the painting, and borrowed some Austrians ( from Peter and Roger) for the project.

In researching the campaign, I found a roster of the Austrian corps involved in the campaign. I have finally gotten to the point that finishing off the units in the corps is a project.  So, here are the Jagers, castings by the Perry bros.

About half of the unit, but you can see the uniform clearly.

There are 18 figures in the unit, they are mounted individually to play either in games of 'Chosen Men' or on movement trays for Piquet Grognards level games.  I mounted the figures on one inch (7/8) fender washers and they fit into the skirmish trays nicely

So I have Jagers and Chevaulegers and artiilery done. I have in the lead pile some Grenz and Hussars obtained at a flea market.  A regiment of Landwehr and perhaps one of line and the project can be recreated using just troops from my collection.

I have some catching up to do.... Prussians

Deciding which Prussian units to model, I came upon the 1815 I Corps, 1st Brigade. It was composed of the 12th and 24th Line as well as the 1st Westphalian Landwehr. Cavalry units, Uhlan, Hussar and Landwehr make up the rest of the brigade's support along with artillery batteries. 

I had completed the 12th Line, which started out as the first Reserve Regiment in 1813.  The 12th Reserve Regiment became the 24th Line when all the renumbering was done.

What I liked about both units was the issuance of the grey uniform to the troops in 1813 which was not fully replaced by the 1815 campaign. Wow, a chance to mix shades of grey with shades of Prussian blue! Oh, two companies of Silesian Schutzen ( Dark Green coats...my cup runneth over) are in the unit as well.

( Can you see why I like the 1815 Dutch Belgian choice of orange as a facing color?)

Most of the Fusileers, 24th IR.

Close up of command

Bugler and officer

These guys look a lot darker than in reality.  I need to get better lighting for my photos. The casting are from the Perry line...at least 12 different poses for this very animated unit.

Two more line battalions to go on the 24th, hen on to the Landwehr. 

I have some catching up to do....Cossacks

Real life and  such had left me with less blog-ability for awhile now.  We all get this at one time or another.

  I will hopefully crank back up by doing a few posts on the units new to my painted collection and why they are in my battalions of boxes. I will skip around a bit, but will try to explain the reasoning behind acquiring each unit. I hope not to boor.

Then I will try to explain the direction of my gaming.  I am much more interested in playing scenarios than leagues...always have been.  I think that finally I will just stick to scenarios in my own showing. This does not limit me in choice of rules, but that said, I am fussy about what I use for rules.

I will also revamp my tabbed pages to be more useful looking at either eras or projects.  So watch and comment on the next couple of months' posts.

First up, some Cossacks for the Napoleonic era.  Some of my oldest units are in my collection of Russian units. I have a Cossack unit from the pre-1978 Minifig line that I still enjoy using on the table. Usually lurking on the sidelined waiting to pounce on a disordered unit, I believe it frustrates my opponents more than it damages them. Often I supplement this unit with some 17th century Cossacks from OG.s Eastern Ren. range. Additionally, one of our players in the old play by email campaign was terrified of another player's Cossacks getting in country.

Anyway,  a recent (well, 2018 anyway) order filled another slot in the Russian cavalry OOB. So here is a Napoleonic Cossack unit. The castings are Perry Bros summer uniformed Cossacks, painted up as Don Cossacks.

Coming out of the woods, even the hill does not bother them.

Some of my gaming opponents will notice the size of the unit at six riders is smaller than the usual 8 castings.  Since the use of the Cossacks should run toward avoiding combat with formed infantry and regular cavalry, the absence of a stand in Piquet  (which I prefer using the Grognards supplement) underscores that such units are not first line cavalry and yet gives them an ability to maneuver more easily, That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

I will probably try to work these into skirmish games of "Chosen Men" as well.  I will need to tinker with ratings as the rules do not cover the Czar's forces.    Hmm, and maybe finish the Cossack-ish battery for them as well.       

Next time up, some Prussians.

Two games of "Chosen Men"

Well, second and third games of the Napoleonic skirmish (1 man per casting) have proven most enlightening. I suck at this game.

Right before our trip to Yellowstone Nat'l park, Greg, Roger and I had a smallish game using about 300-350 points.  All infantry, Brunswick troops against the French.

 A fuzzy shot of part of the Bruswick Avante Garde jaegers backed up by muskets of the same unit.

Our enemies the French, or  a part of the force.  Hmmm, looks like a lot.

 Egads, more of them! A unit of line troops, in line formation, no less.

 The Avante Garde spreads out as the drill book calls for.

The French advance using brush as cover.  Note the red D20 as turn counter.

 The shifty enemy shifts to the right.

Egads, even more of the snail eaters!

 Slowly the French advance and start to take casualties.

 Somehow, my clever plan is dismantled by me placing units one in front of the other, robbing the Jaeger of targets.  This hurts as the rifles covered from firing are longer ranged and easier to hit with than the muskets!

 The clever plan of the French unfolds, dastardly they are sending in all their units so that they can fire!

 Trading shots as I finally get units sorted out. Note that I have placed the musket company in the corn.

Just before the end, the French charge the cornfield. We fight our first melee in the two games played,

Greg takes the win and the game. 

Shifting forward to yesterday, my grand-daughters, aged nine and twelve handed me a another shellacking. They played the Brunswickers, I the French.  We used six five man units and a CO per side, everyone counted as musket armed. The table was as indicated in the photos above.  The object was to get the majority of five wagons that were on the central road off the player baseline.  We played hard and long. I forgot the camera but must report getting two wagons to their three; losing three units to routing to their one.

Grandpa not only graciously conceded, but bought lunch. The ladies feasted on grinders and I had Philly cheese steak in my sandwich, so the day seemed a little brighter.

I do like the rules, I can see using them quite a bit for the 'scout and shoot' type games I like in this game scale. Oh, yeah....grand-daughter approved as well.